San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber's proposed bill to extend the present two year time necessary for attaining tenured job security actually has nothing to do with teacher competency, but rather has everything to do with the prospective bankruptcy of California school district's like LAUSD- due to their endemic corruption. The real truth is that they are on the verge of bankruptcy and seek to save an estimated $60,000 a year for every teacher they can deny tenure to- or force out- or to every already tenured teacher they can get rid of by bringing clearly fabricated charges of incompetency against to force them out of their teaching positions in favor of a fresh-out-of-college 20-something working for $35,000 a year on an emergency credential..

Until the recent corporate move to privatize American public school education, 87% of the trillion dollar annual public school budget in this country went to paying the salaries of certificated and classified public education teachers, administrators, and staff. But with the continued squandering of the multi-billion dollar budgets at districts like LAUSD, that put these districts on the verge of imminent bankruptcy within the next two years, something had to be done to save money to avoid the looming bankruptcy- and accountabiltiy- of what has been rank incompetency of public school administration by ex-teachers- now administrators- with literally no skill set to effectively operate such a massive business organization. So, the patsy of choice has become the supposedly incompetent teachers, who if the district can get rid of them, will avoid bankruptcy. And of course, the State of California finds itself looking the other way in LAUSD's fraudulent liable of teachers, because it knows that if LAUSD goes under, the State of California will be left holding the bankruptcy bag.

Before this proposed extension of the time necessary to attain tenure- which was initially sought by Assemblywoman Weber to be 5 years and has now been reduced to 3 years- we already had seen an openly hostile to teacher environment that saw 50% of new teachers quitting the profession within 3 years, because of the openly hostile environment they dealt with on a daily basis, where openly disruptive students were left in classes without administrative action or support, because the only concern administration had was in continuing to collect average daily attendance money from the state and federal government irrespective of whether or not the classroom environment was conducive to either student learning or teacher teaching.

Contemporaneously, we have also seen a 50% drop in applications to teacher credentialing programs as the word got out that teaching was rapidly becoming a non-profession, where the teacher's job description now more approximated what a babysitter does as opposed to a teacher. And it's not as if districts like LAUSD make any attempt to hide what they are doing. One only need walk into any Latino and Black classroom, which remains the constituency of 90% of LAUSD classroms, to see the tolerated chaos that no teacher can deal with, when the students have been clearly given the message that their are no consequences for continuing to disrupt the class to their own and their fellow students lifetime detriment.

What is astounding is that no state senator or assembly person seems capable of actually getting themselves into these classrooms to see what is actually going on and determining for themselves whether public school education failure at districts like LAUSD have anything to do with teacher incompetency. But LAUSD, while systematically targeting thousands of high seniority teachers with false charges to get rid of them decided to increase administrative positions by 20% and now seeks to raise the salary of its Board of Education to $125,000, which is a rather large leap from their $45,000 a year part-time position. Or could it just be the payoff to these administrators for their complicity in the privatization of public education and their going along with getting rid of fairly compensated teachers who stand in the way of the projected corporate bottom line?

12

07 2017

4 Comments

There's no mistake in focusing on the pawns. Without them and their cooperation, the chiefs you speak of could do nothing. In fact, it's the pawns that insulate the upper level and from the pawns the fall guys will be drawn if this ever collapses of its own weight. I think you're the one making the big mistake with notion of taking the high road when there's none. If you disagree, fine. I could care less about convincing others that their sentimental journey is self deceiving mirage.

This stuff about tenure is undeniably true but no truer than the first time you said or the many subsequent times you said over the past 1o years or so. So the real question is how does the district get away with and for so long. There are several parties responsible starting with the district for all the reasons that were listed. After that and just as responsible is the teachers union. Union leadership has really done nothing about it other than establishing a sterile committee within the itself which does nothing but provide a gathering place for targeted teachers until they're eventually dismissed or driven to quit. After that, you really have to blame contract teachers. They've done nothing to support their victimized peers. No demonstrations, no rallies, nothing other than treating them like lepers or ignoring them. As long as it's not happening to them personally, it isn't happening at all. And they bear double guilt for this because they continue to tolerate a corrupted union. Finally, the last party responsible would be the nearby cousins to the contract teachers, the substitute teachers. For every teacher unjustly pulled from the classroom, there's a line of subs ready to grab up the available hours. So the subs are the glue which keeps things together until the district can replace the targeted teacher. A sort of fifth column for the district. Now, I know a few contract teachers will deny their role. But the proof isn't what they did but rather what they didn't do, stand up for their peers. Subs will no doubt deny any fifth column comparisons. But that's like the kettle telling to pot not to call it black. So these are your doers, wrongdoers that is.

In this sick game I think you make a big mistake focusing on the pawns. In a reality where the targeting and removal of innocent teachers never sees the light of day in the mainstream commercial or public media it is understandable that most people are still either completely unaware of what is going on or have rationalized doing nothing, because they think these targeted expensive high seniority teachers must have done something wrong.

What never occurs in people's minds is the national scope of this move to privatize public education that requires removing the "impediment" of more expensive high seniority teachers by moving their compensation to corporate profit through charter schools, where teachers are paid far less and where overpriced goods and services remain the rule in a system without literally any better and often worse educational outcomes.

But in what remains a racially segregated system, rich Whites living in suburbia do not face these problems in their schools, so why should they care? Beyond their shortsighted self-interest approach is a reality that not only has and continues to decimate public education in our inner cities, but has also lead to democracy well on its way to being trumped for all Americans. Was Betsy DeVos a surprise to you?

There is no moral authority to stand up to the incompetent, treasonous, criminal who is the President of the US.
Jake Tapper Goes Cronkite on Don Jr. Emails: ‘Evidence of Willingness to Commit Collusion’ | Mediaite http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jake-tapper-goes-cronkite-on-don-jr-emails-this-is-evidence-of-willingness-to-commit-collusion/?utm_source=Mediaite+Newsletter&utm_campaign=095f6e9399-mediaite+winner+and+loser&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_643c243cd6-095f6e9399-281919337
“It’s a staggering turn of events, and it’s rather momentous,” Tapper continued. “This can’t just be, this can’t be dismissed as people out to get Donald J. Trump Jr. or fake news.”
“This is evidence of willingness to commit collusion. That’s what this is on its face. Now, maybe there’s an explanation for it, and if that’s true, we can talk about that, and we’ll report it.” “It’s incredible,” Tapper said, noting that The Time’s weekend scoop was supported by leaks from the White House, and of the new emails, “this particular leak came, at least where I printed it out from, was Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter account. And these e-mails are staggering.”
“Again, this unquestionably depicts somebody saying the Russian government wants to help the Trump campaign with documents damaging to Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump Jr. saying, “I love it” and setting up a meeting to do so,” Tapper added.